/lit/ - Literature

try david hume or something, or look up naturalism

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/naturalism/

also learn your biology and physics, in case your education is incomplete in those areas.

The Bible

The God Delusion and books like it aren't really for atheists they're for holiday christians and agnostics. It's a little masturbatory for atheists to read them.

identifying oneself by atheism is retarded still.

Read The God Delusion, it's reallyg good. Also, Richard Dawkins himself recommends several books about atheism there.

Read The Bible

Sooner or later you will stumble about Darwinian evolution, so you might want to read Darwins most famous book, which is a good read anyway.

What I enjoyed very much was of course, Christopher Hitchens "god is not great" and Sam Harries "The End of Faith".

I.. I don't think atheism works like that... Maybe some of the phylosofags can help you out.

I also think Dawkins is a bit of an ass hole, going around and trying to stop people from believing what they do. I mean, he has facts on his side, and I think he is right, but he doesn't have to be a dick about it.

An Enquiry concerning Human Understanding

Screw the neo-atheists, they're but worms compared to Hume.

You should really READ The fucking Bible, first

>>1075623
He is only trying to stop people believing in what they do because currently there are people who believe that the world is destined to come to an end within the next 100 years. And some of those people are the people who have their fingers on the button.

reading the bible is unnecessary.

>>1075631
if you want to GO TO HELL sure it isn't


FAGGOT

now please FUCKING PRAY instead of suck cock

Stay away from Dawkins. His arguments are a few centuries behind the times. A good place to start would be "The Essence of Christianity" by Ludwig Feuerbach or "Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion" by Hume

>>1075636
is this the new edgy christian movement or something.

>>1075630
You're making him out to be some sort of misunderstood hero... All he really does is argue with poor backwater folk telling them their precious Jebus isn't real. I can understand him standing up to people who want to take evolution theory out of the classrooms, and the extremely religious - that's a good thing, but like most people with extreme views, he only really fights those with opposite views that are harmless.

There's nothing to learn. Atheism isn't a belief system. It's a total lack of a belief system.

Captcha: Progmend Philosophy

Stay away from the evangelical
atheists, they're arrogant and operate in the same way as the religious fanatics do. Read up on the Buddhist doctrines if you're interested in the broader 'atheism'.

atheism is a very small and rather inconsequential part of philosophical naturalism, which only has been around for, oh, fuck, a few centuries. getting surprised by atheism is just a sign of an ass backwards education.

>>1075636
Go back to /b/.

dawkins might be a pretentious dickhead, but he's right.

he explains "atheism" pretty well to the plebians.

>>1075673
>>dawkins might be a pretentious dickhead, but he's right
No. No, he isn't

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n20/terry-eagleton/lunging-flailing-mispunching

>>1075678
like im going to read a really long poorly written piece of shit by some fanatical jesusfag.

>>1075678
>mfw theists think there's a god debate

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Existence_of_god

here, now go read something that actually matters. Seriously, defining yourself as an atheist, reading atheist books, unless you're in high school and just became an atheist...you should really be getting over this. Read actual literature or philosophy.

>>1075642
Atheism isn't the lack of a belief system. That's nihilism. Atheism is the lack of belief in a diety or god(s). It's really sad how now everyone's "atheist" mostly just because they're butthurt their parents had faith in religion. Most people are atheist nowadays because it's a fad, a hipster thing to do without really putting much thought into anything, doing some research and thinking about the context in your OWN life. They just hear "hey religion is bad for you, you should be atheist" and because that's what most modern intelectual people do so to fit in the "intelectual" label they just say they're atheis only because God doesn't really have much space in today's way of life.

Let's not turn this into a huge religious debate. Instead I'll just ask:

Trolling aside, are there any anons here who truly believe in the Abrahamic God, and would identify as either Christian, Jewish, Muslim or any other denomination of theism?

>>1075694
anyway (this should be the last word in the last sentence, forgot to type it)

>>1075699
of course they are and they post CP on /b/[/spoler]

>>1075689
>>1075692
Eagleton isn't making a case for a personal God; rather, this is his intention: "Eagleton presents what his tutor Raymond Williams would have called a structure of feeling, implying a reflective stance that recognises the enormous power and importance (for good and ill) of traditional doctrines, and the vacuity of the atheism with which Dawkins would replace ‘the richest, most enduring form of popular culture in human history’."

>>1075707
it's a waste of time to do philosophy from a silly basis like catholicism

>>1075613
>>1075620
>>1075629
This! Read the fucking Bible (and other religious texts), if you want to be a militant atheist you should at least have a basic idea what you're attacking. And reading the religious texts will give you more ground than "hurr hurr hurr Dawkins told me you're retards!"

>>1075707 the vacuity of the atheism with which Dawkins would replace ‘the richest, most enduring form of popular culture in human history’."

...Because it isn't like there's millions of atheists in the world who seem to have done fine without religion or anything.

You just pulled that out of your ass, and it makes you sound like you're either a theist offended that people turn away form god, or somebody that considers himself a "real" atheist, and is offended by everyone just cramping up your atheist style.

>>1075699
When asked I say that I am a Christian because I was baptised into the Orthodox Church, but on personal level I don't live a religious life or attend church. Why I do not strictly believe in god, I guess I spend too much time considering if he is or isn't to say that I don't believe in him either. I have full faith in what I have learned about physics and biology and chemistry, and am willing to accept the notion of god as the cause for life, or the force that somehow put all of the making for life in one place. Pretty wishy-washy all in all...

>>1075694
all just another sign of the beginning of the death of god in the US. Though it has been happening in Europe for a long time, the US hasn't really felt it until recently, i think this whole new atheism thing is a symptom that the death of god in the US has finally begun. Im kinda giddy with excitement, i wonder what Nietzsche would say?

>>1075719
idk. if the other guy's belief rests on a certain idea, and you can defeat the idea, then it doesn't matter what the rest of the beliefs are. this is just logically speaking. treating the argument as an action and a life activity, not knowing the other guy's beliefs may make the attack misguided or silly.

>>1075719
> Mfw a doctrine has merely been bought to attack other doctrines

>>1075725
nietzsche would have learned modern philosophy and stopped being nietzsche

>>1075712
Sorry, but Eagleton's whole point is that "The God Delusion" is a terrible polemic. Dawkins does a sloppy job with his definitions, his logic is garbled and he knows nothing about theology. He spends 400 pages stylin' off a strawman: a sloppy and comical caricature of Christianity. This has nothing to do with Eagleton's beliefs, and everything to do with Dawkin's inexcuably bad book.

>>1075734
yea, of course of course. but that doesn't make what dawkins is doing worse than dignified Theology.

>>1075733

self redefinition is what Nietzsche was all about, in a sense, that is being Nietzsche...

>>1075740
yea, but he wouldn't be what he is culturally.

>>1075723
Atheism is, by definition, defining oneself in relation to one's belief (or lack thereof) in God. Atheists are, for better or for worse, tied to the mast of God and religion for their sense of identity. Atheists are worse than vacuous. They define themselves by what one hate. What terribly small people.

>>1075745
I think you're inventing a punching bag and then wailing on it...

>>1075739
Setting aside the merits of theology, if what Dawkins is doing isn't good, then it isn't good. Dawkins is basically turning religion into America style politics: a fierce foodfight, a zero-sum game, a highly polarized contest with no room for creative thought or compromise in the middle, just endless partisan skirmishes.

>>1075745
Gods. God is just a tiny, tiny part of the spectrum of gods. Atheism is also a tiny, tiny part of my identity. It is just an answer to the question people ask me. How else could I distinct myself from "the mast of God and religion" when someone asks me do I believe in gods? I don't hate God, gods or religion. Hate and love are irrelevant.

Dont forget you and me are 99% alike. I just go one god further. You are equally a "terribly small person" when looked from the point of view of any of the religions you don't believe in.

>>1075751
>I think you're inventing a punching bag and then wailing on it...
No, my name isn't Richard Dawkins. Sorry.

>They define themselves by what one hate.

That's ANTI-theism, not A-theism. Most of us don't care if you worship whatever as long as you don't shove your opinion into our faces.

>>1075757
but the basis of having any sort of contest in that area is seriously flawed.

anyway, i don't care about dawkins at all. no need to talk about him with me.

>>1075767
Why flawed?

>>1075769
because it is established that all supernatural blah blah is silly and unfit for modern thought.

>I want to learn more about being unreasonably aggressive towards religious people, even those who agree that religion is a private matter and shouldn't be forced onto other people, because all religious people are stupid morons and I'm not a fifteen year old who blindly became atheist because all the cool kids (read: fat internerds) were doing it!

ftfy

>>1075790

>>1075773
But many modern discussions of religion don't even center on that. Most philosophers have given up trying to prove that there is a God or disprove his existence. But many philosophers ARE in fact distressed that phenomenology, like emotions, feelings and personal experiences of God, get shut out as evidence in favor of what is "purely logical." This isn't to say that magic gets introduced as a respectable area for philosophical inquiry, just that human experience should be.

>>1075792
You should be asking yourself that, basement dwelling neckbeard atheist faggot.

Read "Why I am not a Christian" by Bertrand Russell.

>>1075795
yea whatever, i don't care. do something useful.

>>1075790

>mfw you think you're being clever and funny

>>1075758
>>1075762
Ok, I was being a little catty. I admit. But my point holds. Look at the very word, "atheism:" it literally means without a belief in God. Atheism, like Christianity, grew from intellectual traditons within Western thought, but it cannot transcend its origin (who can?) and be post-God. In other words, atheism cannot "forget" its father. It must name him to deny him.

>>1075798

This. Read Hume and shit, too. Dawkins isn't really the best source for learning about atheism. He's too militant in his approach and he just doesn't know enough about the subject. Though he certainly knows more than about 99% of Christians do.

just a couple

Richard Dawkins - The selfish Gene
David Christian - Maps of Time
Briane Greene - The Fabric of the Cosmos
Desmond Morris - The Naked Ape
Sam Harris - The End of Faith
John Gray - Straw Dogs
David Hume - Dialogues concerning natural relgion
Karen Armstrong - A history of God
Carl Sagan's Cosmo's series as well

And of course The Koran and The Bible

>>1075796
Again with the making of imaginary enemies? Listen, I think you have some issue, you need to understand people are more diverse than that. Stop being so offended and close-minded.

>>1075804

Where the fuck is Russell's "Why I Am Not a Christian"?

>>1075806
Up his own ass, along with his head

>>1075719
Hey guys I want to learn how to be a good cook

Well you better go eat some dogshit first so you know what you're attacking!

>>1075806
Well fuck me If I couldn't get every /lit/ fags ideal book of the top of my head...

yes; Bertrand Russels - Why I am not a Christian as well should be read as well.

>>1075809

Go back to reading Kant like your typical idiot Christfag.

>>1075811
Terrible analogy. Just terrible.

>>1075799
Oh come on admit it. These are even better than Ayn Rand debate threads.

>>1075820
if i'm in the right mood, i could enjoy a theology discussion. but this thread isn't really theology.

ITT: Pseudo intellectualism.

>>1075813
Ignostic, and Russell was an arrogant cunt that denounced anything he didn't fully grasp

>>1075822
MY that's a big word for a 5-year old!

>>1075823

>mfw you think you're more intelligent than Russell was

>>1075811
-Hey guise, I want to learn more about hating French cuisine

-Have you tried eating French food?

-WHY WOULD I DO THAT

>>1075825

>Big word

>Not big words

MFW

>>1075827
Now that's a much better analogy.

>>1075827
the bible isnt a book about atheism, you fucking moron

>>1075616

Why?

>>1075830
> Implying the SHOULD-HAVE-BEEN-HYPHEN didn't join the word into one

>>1075828
I didn't say that. Don't jump to conclusions, you're making me sad.

>>1075626

>Neo-atheist

Explain

>>1075638

I AM SO EDGEY AND DIFERENT I AM AN ATH3ST1

>>1075799

"Whatever bro" Giving up on an argument just shows that you got backed into a corner and you just gave up like a bitch because you know you are wrong and you have nothing left to say to someone who has enough ammo to all the countrys in ww2 several times over.

tl;dr you are a dumb pussy.

>>1075805

1.) you got trolled

2.) LOL RIKARD DAWKINS

>>1075861

>alll

Meant to say all.

>>1075859

>To all

Meant to say to stock alll

>>1075859
look mommy, a troll

>>1075859
>>1075861
>>1075862

Meant to say DISREGARD THAT I SUCK COCKS

>>1075874

Ya still gave up like a fag.

You lost the argument that is all there needs to be said. And it does not matter if you respond to this post or not. If you respond you look like some idiot trying to save face cause you know, you are a trip. And if you dont respond you will look like a pussy anyway for not knowing what to say.

You lose. Sorry.

>>1075876

Using chan speak to make fun of me eh?

THAT WILL SHOW HIM DERP

>>1075878
>lose

I don't get it, are we debating here? losing a debate shouldn't be something shameful; by failing you have learned something new, I thought this was a common mindset.

no need to be an asshole about it, that's kinda rude!

>>1075896

You fucking did it. You hesitated for a long long time but you fucking did it. Oh my god what have you done?

Mr.Fish you are a dumbass. Goodbye and god bless.

>>1075901
... I'm not mr. fish. Cool that you think that, though.

Who says "God bless" anyway, this isn't a fucking church.

If you want to understand atheism, understand religion.

Get reading, most atheists don't know a damn thing. Don't be one of them.

>>1075908
Atheism is about rejecting the ridiculous notion of supernatural beings. You don't need to know anything about religion to do that and you certainly don't need to read the bible.

Pic unrelated. It's just a dead child that looks like a penis.